


Sleepless

by starryeyedchar



Series: Voltron Whump Week [5]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Angst, Bonding, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Hunk is injured, Insomnia, Lance and Keith are helping each other out, M/M, Major Character Injury, how does one tag
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-17
Updated: 2017-08-17
Packaged: 2018-12-16 14:21:59
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,614
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11830545
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/starryeyedchar/pseuds/starryeyedchar
Summary: Keith goes to the training deck after a particularly rough mission, intending to work out some nerves. He didn't expect someone to be there.Or the one where Lance can't sleep after Hunk takes a hit for him and is injured, and Keith can't either, so he helps him.





	Sleepless

**Author's Note:**

> Day 5 of VLD Whump Week- Insomnia.

Keith found himself returning to the training deck. He didn't know why he started doing it, but now he couldn't stop. Any time his emotions got to be too much, he buried them by fighting the training bots, sometimes for hours on end.

This practice quickly became a habit for any difficult situation, any time he simply couldn't calm down without exhausting himself physically. So, it was really no surprise that after a terrible mission like _that_ he would do this.

What was surprising, however, was that someone else was already using the room.

Keith's eyes widened as he took in the sight of Lance crouching to shoot at least six different bots from across the room.

It felt strangely private, watching Lance expertly take down the training droids, nothing but focus in his eyes. The blue paladin hadn't even noticed Keith walk through the door, and he felt guilty just standing there and watching. Not that it would be polite to interrupt, either. Really, Keith should've just left.

But he couldn't tear his gaze away. There was something about watching Lance in his element like that... Keith couldn't put his finger on it.

As Lance carried on flawlessly, lasers hitting their marks in quick succession, Keith found himself questioning everything he thought he knew about the Cuban boy.

Keith was somewhat angry he hadn't realized it before; with how much Lance's aim had improved over time. It was no wonder he did some extra training. In fact, they did very little distance training as a team at all, which meant Lance would've learned all this entirely on his own time.

And yet Lance was always portrayed as the team goofball, making jokes and slacking off.  The Lance he saw when the others were around seemed to transform into an entirely different person when by himself.

It made Keith wonder just how often this happened, how much of Lance they were missing. After all, Keith liked to train early in the mornings. But it was the dead of night, or whatever the Altean time equivalent, and Lance was just as bright and awake as ever.

Lance straightened, brushing a bead of sweat from his brow as the last of the training bots fizzled out. His eyes then caught of Keith, and his serious demeanor was shattered as he jumped about a foot in the air. “Keith! How... how long have you been standing there!?”

He ignored the question. “Lance. What do you think you're doing?” Keith crossed his arms.

Lance cast him a sheepish smile, attempting to shove his deactivated bayard behind his back. “What does it look like I'm doing?”

“It _looks_ like you're training by yourself after hours, when we're all supposed to be sleeping,” Keith replied, unimpressed. “That was a really rough mission. We all need to get some rest.”

Lance rubbed the back of his neck, still smiling. “Well, I train after dinner sometimes, you know.”

“Lance, it's nearly four in the morning.”

The look of surprise on his face was short of convincing. “ _Really_? Gee, I guess I better get to sleep then, must've lost track of time—”

“ _Lance_ ,” Keith repeated, stopping him in his tracks as he started to leave the room. “Tell me the truth.”

Lance's shoulders sagged. “I do train here by myself a lot, but... I don't know. After the way the mission went, I couldn't sleep.”

Keith's anger dissipated, if only slightly. “I know how you feel, but if you don't rest up, then—”

“No, you don't understand,” Lance insisted, and Keith was taken aback to see tears in his eyes. “It was _my fault_.”

Keith's own eyes softened. “Lance, that's not true—”

“Of course it is! Hunk took that shot for me, Keith! And now he's in a pod!” Lance let out a shaky breath. “ _Fuck_ , I mean, injuries are common. They're part of the job, I get that. But it's _Hunk_. The rest of us are a bunch of reckless idiots, but not him. He's supposed to be the rational one, always careful, playing it safe. He's always been dependable like that, and I should know— we've been friends since we were kids, but... he got hurt. And I just keep... seeing it, over and over again.”

“Lance—”

“And I know... I know I should be resting, but I can't sleep, not when every time I close my eyes I see my best friend bleeding out in my arms! And maybe this time, we wouldn't be able to save him!” Lance was full on crying now. “So I came here, instead. Because maybe if I can get better, I can stop something like this from happening ever again. Maybe I can actually protect you guys, instead of being a burden.”

_Burden_?

“Lance,” Keith started, carefully. He'd never been good with words. Whenever he tried to comfort someone, he usually just made it worse. But Keith wasn't about to just stand there and let him cry, not if he could help it. “Lance, look at me. You can't blame yourself, alright? It wasn't your fault. The shot could've killed you, and Hunk knew that, so _he_ made the choice. He's smart. He probably wouldn't have done it if he didn't think you'd both be okay.”

“Of course he's smart, the guy's a genius! But you don't know Hunk like I do. We've been best friends for years, like I said. He's smart, no doubt about that, but he's selfless first,” Lance told him. “Always puts others before himself. He's saved my life countless times, and if he died doing that... if he was gone because of some stupid mistake I made... I don't know how I'd live with myself.”

Keith _wanted_ to point out that Lance was selfless, too, but he couldn't bring himself to. How did he not realize that he also put the needs of others first?

_Maybe that's why the two of them get along so well_ , Keith thought.

“Lance, we're a team. We're supposed to have each other's backs, right?” Keith tried for a smile, hoping Lance would return it. “Do you have any idea how many times you've saved _my_ life? I know it's scary to think about, but any time one of us goes down, the rest of us are going to be there to pick them back up. We're the defenders of the universe, aren't we? That means we've gotta look out for everyone, and that includes each other.”

Lance stared at him for an moment, then rubbed the tears away from his eyes with a short laugh. “When did you get so good with words?”

Keith shrugged. “Probably just something else I learned from you.”

Lance's eyes widened.

“Hunk's going to be fine. I'm not going to promise that we're all _always_ going to be okay, because I don't know what'll happen. But I can promise you that if and when we go down, it's not going to be without a fight. And dammit if we don't come back swinging harder than we were before, every time,” Keith offered Lance a hand. “And we're all fine for right now, so how about we just hold onto that for a bit? Deal?” He expected Lance to shake his hand, maybe even high-five him. When Lance didn't move, Keith worried he'd said or done something wrong.

But then Lance grabbed his hand, yanked him forward, and wrapped his arms around Keith in a near-suffocating hug. Keith couldn't help it; he tensed up at first, but relaxed pretty quickly.

“Thank you,” Lance whispered into his shoulder, and Keith figured maybe he wasn't so bad at this whole leader thing after all. Not if he could make Lance feel better, even just this once.

But then Lance was looking at him, brows furrowed in confusion. “Wait, if you came down here just to tell me to get some rest, then why are you in full paladin armor? Why do you have your bayard?”

Oh, shit.

Keith stammered over his words for a moment, and Lance smirked.

“I knew it! You were coming down here to train, too! You're trying to act like a responsible leader when you're just as bad as I am!” Lance laughed, but at the annoyed look on Keith's face, his smile turned soft. “You couldn't sleep either, huh? Maybe we should both try and get some rest.”

Keith wasn't sure what made him do it. A smart leader _would_ suggest they both go to sleep immediately, get an early start on training the next day. Shiro would've definitely gone for that option. But then again, Keith wasn't him. He couldn't lead the same way Shiro did.

And maybe that wasn't such a bad thing.

“Unless you want me to stay here and spar with you?” Keith asked. It wasn't originally meant to be a question.

Lance seemed at a loss for words. Keith could admit it was the slightest bit entertaining, seeing him be the flustered one for once. “I'm... I'm sorry, _what_?”

Keith didn't feel the grin until it was too late to stop it. “It's no secret that you're terrible at close combat. And training with a real person is always more helpful than those predictable bots. I used to spar with Shiro a lot...” he trailed off, eyes meeting Lance's again. “Unless you're scared? It's fine if you don't want to—”

“Oh no, I want to,” Lance interrupted. “But then you've got to agree that I give you some shooting lessons some other time, because your aim is horrendous. Deal?” He extended a hand, just as Keith had only minutes before.

Keith repressed an eye roll as he shook Lance's hand. “Deal.”

 


End file.
